Call for Participation in the Verzio Doclab Filmmaking Workshop

Documentary films have power. They can inspire and be a call to action. They can be potent tools in the fight for dignity, and against censorship and oppression. In these challenging times, when human rights are under threat around the globe in unprecedented ways, documentaries that can tell these stories on film are of vital importance.

The Verzio DocLab workshop invites you to share stories from your community, your experience, your perspective, by creating a film that deepens understanding of the human rights challenges people face. The workshop is a platform for both beginning and advanced filmmakers interested in documentary and human rights to make a short film, a documentary essay or to edit a scene or episode from a feature-length documentary already in the making. An international team of filmmakers, editors, and human rights experts will offer guidance and mentorship in structuring, editing, and post-producing your film. Subject matter may focus on human rights issues in the broadest sense. The stories should be well researched, based on lived experience, foreground individual personalities, and aim for impact. The workshop participants are expected to arrive with footage shot prior to the workshop and will get tutoring in editing and cinematic structure. The goal of the workshop is to put human rights issues “in focus” by contributing to the creation of films that make an impact, raise awareness, and call for action, either on their own or as part of a broader ongoing campaign.

The workshop takes place at CEU’s Mirabaud Media Lab (Budapest) and is organized by Verzio IHRDFF and the CEU Visual Studies Platform. The participation is free of charge, and participants are responsible for organizing their own travel and living arrangements in Budapest. Basic editing experience is required, preferably on Adobe Premiere Pro, which is the platform provided in the Lab. Those attendees editing a project on another platform will need to provide their own laptop. All attendees will need an external hard drive for storage and editing of footage. Participants are required to attend and will get a certificate at the end of the workshop.

The resulting works (or excerpts from works in progress) will be screened during the festival and circulated on-line.

Supported by EDN The tutors will select the best project of the workshop which will be granted with the support of EDN (European Documentary Network): - a 2 x 1-hour on-line consultation with EDN director (at a moment of the project owner’s choice) and - a 1-year free membership of the EDN organisation for two persons, representing the project.